10 Greatest Movie Villains Of The Last Decade

Bong Joon-ho’s brilliant socially aware sci-fi is crammed with great characters - cannibals, schemers, renegades, and emperors of the new world all stuffed onto an unstoppable train. Perhaps the film’s most iconic creation, however, is the chameleonic Tilda Swinton, adding another string to her substantial bow as the sinister Minister Mason.

Swinton’s character is second in command to Ed Harris’ shady overlord Wilford, and you couldn’t pick much worse a public face to represent you. She is simply bizarre, in mannerism, speech, and appearance. Swinton adopts a thick Yorkshire accent, and is all the more creepy in her singsong, playful approach to the part.

Being a great actor, Swinton is reliably superb in pretty much anything she appears in, but she pulls off a role that few could do here. The character is so bizarre as to hinge on parody, but in Swinton’s capable hands, Mason is a fearsome figure, otherworldly but grounded in a believable menace.

We never learn where the “Minister” title comes from, but the character’s authority is wielded with a religious fervour.